Survey Of Statistics Something To Ponder

We rate movies from 1 to 4, prefer three-star restaurants and like to be associated with No. 1s. The travel industry, too, is fond of polls, surveys and rankings. Here are some.

CALIFORNIA NO. 1

California has the most travel agencies of any state. That sounds about right, because California has a lot of people and most of them like to travel, but California has more than twice as many agencies as Florida! Given the glut of agencies in Palm Beach and Broward counties, I can`t picture us with more than twice as many.

California has 4,766 agencies, New York has 2,988 and Florida, No. 3, has 2,018.

Incidentally, if you want to start a travel agency you might head for West Virginia, where there are only 41 in the entire state, or South Dakota, which has 43.

WHERE WE FLY MOST

The most-flown air route in the nation is New York-Boston. In the 12 months ending last June 20, 4.17 million persons flew that route. For the same period, the Miami-New York route ranked sixth (2.24 million passengers), and the Fort Lauderdale-New York run was the eighth-busiest route (1.58 million passengers.)

However, if you add up Miami-New York and Fort Lauderdale-New York, two airports many airlines list jointly, the total is 3.82 million, putting South Florida in the No. 2 spot.

Note that the two busiest airports in the nation, Chicago and Atlanta, had only one top 10 spot between them, the New York-Chicago run.

FLORIDA IS NO. 5

Illinois is spending more than any other state this year to attract tourists. The state`s budget for travel and tourism development for fiscal 1985-86 is $15.5 million. It`s No. 1 among states for the second year in a row.

Florida, a relative piker in this department, ranks fifth, spending $9.5 million. It`s still above par, though. The average spending among the 50 state tourist offices is $4.3 million. The average state spends 40 percent of its budget on advertising.

Maybe Illinois has given up on persuading Floridians to come on up. Whatever they`re spending the money on, it`s not postage. I never get news releases or any word from Illinois` tourist office to pass on to readers.

These figures come from the U.S. Travel Data Center in Washington, D.C.

WHERE THE BUSES GO

Washington, D.C., was the top destination of escorted bus tours last year. Orlando -- read that Walt Disney World -- was only No. 5.

New York City was the second most popular bus tour destination, Nashville was third and Niagara Falls was fourth.

SEA/Southeastern Advertising Agency, which did the research for the motor coach tours, said that other perennial favorites for bus tours are Boston, Williamsburg, Va., Montreal and Atlantic City.

AIRBORNE COMPLAINTS

What do airline passengers complain about? The U.S. Department of Transportation lists cancellations and flight delays, baggage mishaps and refund snafus as chief topics of airline passenger complaints to the department during 1985. DOT`s Community and Consumer Affairs office reported more than 11,000 consumer grievances in 1985. Included were 113 complaints about travel agencies and 387 about tour operators, neither of which the DOT can resolve. The agency deals only with domestic air travel.

Which airlines draw the most complaints? World Airways was No. 1, with 10.48 complaints per 100,000 passengers; Pan Am was second, with 5.06 complaints per 100,000. People Express drew 4.59 and Continental 4.34 per 100,000 passengers.

At the low end was Aloha with only 0.12 complaints per 100,000. Other airlines with fewer than one complaint per 100,000 passengers were Southwest, Alaska Airlines, AirCal, Delta, Piedmont, Ozark and PSA.

And this doesn`t count all the people who mutter and sputter but never complain officially to DOT.

If you want to complain, phone the DOT`s consumer office at (202) 755-2220.

WE`RE BIG SPENDERS

Here are some figures about flying and spending.

More than a million passengers a day flew on the world`s scheduled airlines last year. U.S. airlines transported more than 375 million passengers on 5.6 million flights, with passenger miles exceeding 330 billion.

A Gallup Organization survey among air travelers reported that 48 million adults -- 28 percent of the population of U.S. adults 18 or older -- took airline trips during 1985.

Americans took nearly 29 million trips to foreign destinations in 1985 -- an all-time record -- and spent some $8 billion more overseas than foreigners spent in the United States, reports Travel Agent magazine.